The story
Westinghouse Electric Company was formed in 1999, after the original company with that name, George Westinghouse's Westinghouse Electric, founded in 1886, ceased to exist due to a series of divestitures and mergers through the mid-to-late 1990s. These included Westinghouse Electric's purchase of CBS in 1995, expansion into communications and broadcasting, and the selling off of most non-broadcast operations by 1998, renaming itself CBS Corporation.
In 1998, the Westinghouse Power Generation Business unit was sold to Siemens of Germany. In 1999, CBS Corporation sold its nuclear business (Westinghouse Electric Company) to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) and a year later CBS Corporation was merged into Viacom (1971–2005), putting an end to the original Westinghouse. Legally, Westinghouse Electric Corporation still exists, mainly for the purpose of licensing, as a subsidiary of CBS Corporation.
Association with Paramount Skydance
Although no longer associated with CBS Corporation (later Paramount Global and now Paramount Skydance), Westinghouse Electric Company LLC has for some years used the trademarks owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, by then Viacom/CBS Corporation/ViacomCBS' brand management subsidiary, under license, as is the case with other Westinghouse licensees. In 2021, ViacomCBS sold the Westinghouse licensing operation (including trademarks) directly to the now-independent Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
Sale to Toshiba
In July 2005, BNFL confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse, then estimated to be worth $2 billion. This attracted interest from several companies, including Toshiba, General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. When the Financial Times reported on January 23, 2006, that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $5bn (£2.8bn). On February 6, 2006, Toshiba confirmed it was buying Westinghouse Electric Company for $5.4bn and announced it would sell a minority stake to investors.
The sale surprised many industry experts who questioned the wisdom of BNFL selling one of the world's largest producers of nuclear reactors shortly before the market for nuclear power was expected to grow substantially; China, the United States and the United Kingdom were all expected to invest heavily in nuclear power. After the 2005 Indo-US nuclear deal, there was also hope that India's plan of massive investment in nuclear plants would help to revive the U.S. nuclear power industry.
Reasons in favor of a sale were: The commercial risk of the company's business in Asia may have been too high for a company then owned by taxpayers; if Westinghouse won the bid for any new nuclear stations in a UK competition, questions may be raised of favoritism, but if it lost, it might have been seen as a lack of faith in its own technology. Finally, the record of UK governments building nuclear plants had been a commercial disaster.
On October 16, 2006, the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company for $5.4 billion was completed, with Toshiba obtaining a 77% share, partners The Shaw Group a 20% share and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. a 3% share. On 13 August 2007 Toshiba sold 10% to Kazatomprom, the national uranium company for the Republic of Kazakhstan, for US$540 million, leaving Toshiba with 67%. Kazatomprom's ownership was entirely passive, with no voting or veto rights or presence on the board of directors.
In September, 2011, Toshiba was reported to be in talks to acquire the Shaw stake and both companies confirmed the story soon thereafter. Shaw CEO James Bernhard said, that Toshiba was paying US$1.6 Bn for the Shaw-owned 20% stake, and that it was the 50% rise in the yen on its yen-denominated debt over five years, which had led it to exercise its sale option. Toshiba said in late 2012 it was open to, and considering, having other partners invest in the business. The purchase closed in January 2013, and brought Toshiba's share in the company to 87% as a result of Shaw exercising its option.
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Move to Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
After several years of doing business there, Westinghouse decided to move its world headquarters from the Energy Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, to Cranberry Woods in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as reported in a 2007 memo to its employees that stated the main reason was the rapid expansion of the global nuclear industry. Construction began in July 2007 and the move lasted from June 2009 to December 2010.
The Repair, Replacement and Automation Services (RRAS) business segment moved to Cranberry Township earlier than other business segments to help alleviate space issues at the headquarters in Monroeville and was completed in spring of 2008. As part of this move, Westinghouse piloted the first commuter shuttle running an all-day loop between Monroeville and Cranberry Township. The shuttle ceased operation after Westinghouse formally closed, and sold their Monroeville facility in 2012.
2015 accounting difficulties
In 2015, concerns were expressed that the value of assets and goodwill in Westinghouse were overstated. Following an accounting scandal in which profits were overstated at Toshiba, leading to the CEO resigning, Toshiba stated that the Westinghouse nuclear business was more profitable than at acquisition in 2006.
In December 2016, Toshiba said it expected to write down its investment in Westinghouse by US$2.5 billion, adding that it was possible that their investment in Westinghouse could ultimately have a negative worth, due to cost overruns at U.S. nuclear reactors it was building.
In February 2017, Toshiba revealed unaudited details of a 390 billion yen ($3.4 billion) loss, mainly in its US nuclear business which was written down by 712 billion yen ($6.3 billion). On 14 February 2017, Toshiba delayed filing financial results, and Toshiba chairman Shigenori Shiga, formerly chairman of Westinghouse, resigned. Toshiba considered selling the Westinghouse nuclear business.
2017 Chapter 11 bankruptcy
On 29 March 2017, Toshiba's Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing a yearly loss for Toshiba that could exceed $9 billion, almost three times its previous estimate.
The projects responsible for this loss were mostly the construction of four AP1000 reactors at Vogtle in Georgia and Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina. The Wall Street Journal reported that the four nuclear reactors being built in the southeastern U.S. would be left to an unknown fate.
In July, 2017, the co-owners of the V.C. Summer plant announced that the project was terminated. On September 24, 2017, the Post & Courier reported that Westinghouse had hired unlicensed workers to create mechanical and electrical blueprints for the V.C. Summer expansion without having a professional engineer sign off on them which was in violation of state law. The blueprints were often faulty and led to significant delays. The U.S. government had given $8.3 billion of loan guarantees on the financing of the four nuclear reactors being built in the U.S.
Besides the issues with the AP1000 design, the fuel manufacturing division has been profitable, but not enough to cover corporate overheads and support the other divisions. Research and development investment in fuel manufacturing has been low, which has impacted the quality and comparative performance of its fuel compared to competitors.
2018 sale to Brookfield Business Partners
On 6 April 2018, Toshiba announced the completion of the sale of Westinghouse's holding company to Brookfield Business Partners (a subsidiary of Canadian investment management company Brookfield Asset Management Inc.) and some partners for $4.6bn.
Sale to Brookfield Renewable Partners and Cameco
In October 2022, Brookfield Renewable Partners (another subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management) and Cameco announced the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric from Brookfield Business Partners in a US$7.9 billion deal including debt. Brookfield Renewable and its institutional partners will own a 51% interest in Westinghouse, while Cameco will own remaining 49% as part of the deal.
The acquisition was completed in November 2023.
In October 2025, Westinghouse announced an agreement with the Trump Administration to begin plans for $80 billion in new nuclear reactors throughout the United States, including AP1000 and AP300 models.
On July 31, 2026, Westinghouse announced that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. Cameco, a co-owner of Westinghouse, separately confirmed the submission in a press release furnished to the SEC as an exhibit to a Form 6-K filing. Reuters reported that the filing came amid increased investor interest in nuclear-energy companies, as the expansion of data centers by large technology companies contributed to rising U.S. electricity demand.
Timeline
1999: Westinghouse Electric Company officially began operations as British Nuclear Fuels Limited's nuclear power business.
2000: BNFL bought ABB's nuclear power business, and merged into Westinghouse.
2004: Westinghouse bids for two Chinese reactor sites; the US Export-Import bank approved $5 billion in loan guarantees
2006: Westinghouse acquired PaR Nuclear/Ederer Nuclear Cranes, providing fuel and cask handling equipment systems. Westinghouse Electric Company was sold by BNFL to Toshiba,
2007: Westinghouse won China National Nuclear Corporation's bid for 4 AP1000 reactors including Technology Transfer agreement; acquired IST Nuclear of IST Holdings (South Africa); Carolina Energy Solutions (CES) and its affiliates Aggressive Equipment (AE), now WEC Machining; Construction Institute of America (CIA), now WEC Welding Institute; and Carolina United Services, now Carolina Union Services; Astare, a French nuclear engineering company headquartered near Paris.
2009: Westinghouse acquired Nuclear Fuel Industries, Japan's sole producer of nuclear fuel for boiling-water reactor and pressurized water reactors for $100 million and CS Innovations, LLC, an Instrumentation and Control (I&C) nuclear product supplier to the digital I&C safety system upgrade market.
2010: Westinghouse announced involvement in a new, ultra-large forging press in the UK to be built at Sheffield Forgemasters in Yorkshire; took a major stake in Springfields Fuel Limited in the UK. Westinghouse moved world headquarters from Monroeville, Pennsylvania, to Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
2012: Westinghouse cut 200 jobs citing the Fukushima disaster, Germany's Energiewende and low natural gas prices.
2014: Westinghouse acquires Mangiarotti.
2015 Westinghouse acquires CB&I Stone & Webster; Toshiba profits overstated leading to accounting scandal.
2017: Westinghouse files Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2018: Acquisition by Brookfield Business Partners and partners.
2019: Westinghouse acquires Canadian NA Engineering Associates.
2020: Westinghouse acquires U.K. Inspection Consultants Limited (InCon) and Rolls-Royce's nuclear services division.
2021: Westinghouse acquires Canadian firm Laveer Engineering; Westinghouse acquires 50% of Tecnatom.
2022: Westinghouse acquires BHI Energy
2023: Acquisition by Brookfield Renewable Partners and Cameco. Westinghouse completes the 100% acquisition of Tecnatom.
CEOs
Charles W. Pryor Jr., 1997 - July 1, 2002.
Steve Tritch, July 1, 2002 - July 1, 2008
Aris Candris, July 1, 2008 - March 31, 2012
Jim Ferland, April 1, 2012 - April 3, 2012 (2 days)
Shigenori Shiga, April 3, 2012 - September 2012 (interim)
Danny Roderick, September 2012 - June 2016
José Emeterio Gutiérrez, June 2016 - July 31, 2019
Patrick Fragman, August 19, 2019 – March 31, 2025
Dan Sumner, April 1, 2025 – present (interim)
From Wikipedia’s article on Westinghouse Electric Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5